Spring and Fall

Spring and Fall, written by Gerard Manley Hopkins, is a simple and graceful poem that has a powerful religious theme. It is about changing seasons and mankind's mortality. The poem addresses Margaret, which is generally assumed to be a young girl. We assume this based on the use of the word Golden grove, which can mean a simple, dream-like, play-world.

The narrator asks the young girl why Golden grove is "unleaving", or losing its leaves. This falling of the leaves occurs in the autumn as winter approaches. It's clear that Margaret's "reality" of Golden grove is nearly as important to her as the reality of the world. She is in a state of emotional shock as she realizes that the beautiful trees around her are experiencing a form of death and decay.

The poem opens with a question to a child: “Margaret, with her “fresh thoughts,” cares about the leaves as much as about “the things of man.” The speaker reflects that age will alter this innocent response, and that later whole “worlds” of forest will lie in leafless disarray (“leafmeal,” like “piecemeal”) without arousing Margaret’s sympathy. The child will weep then, too, but for a more conscious reason. However, the source of this knowing sadness will be the same as that of her childish grief—for “sorrow’s springs are the same.” That is, though neither her mouth nor her mind can yet articulate the fact as clearly as her adult self will, Margaret is already mourning over her own mortality.

The title of the poem invites us to associate the young girl, Margaret, in her freshness, innocence, and directness of emotion, with the springtime. Hopkins’s choice of the American word “fall” rather than the British “autumn” is deliberate; it links the idea of autumnal decline or decay with the biblical Fall of man from grace. That primordial episode of loss initiated human mortality and suffering; in contrast, the life of a young child, as Hopkins suggests (and as so many poets have before him—particularly...

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...﻿'Spring'
'How does Hopkins use language and style to convey his message to his readers?'
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...An Explication of Spring and Fall: To a Young Child
Hopkins starts his poem, Spring and Fall: To a Young Child, with a question to a young girl, perhaps his granddaughter: “Margaret, are you grieving[?]” (line 1). This quotation suggests that Margaret is watching the leaves fall from the trees in the fall and is sad to see the leaves go. Margaret is a young child, and in being young, she would have no knowledge of the seasons and why the leaves are falling. “Over Goldengrove unleaving?” (line 2), Goldengrove may be metaphorical for her childhood and her lack of knowledge in life and death, because Goldengrove sounds very playful and beautiful like a garden or playground. ”Leaves, [like the things of man]/ With [her] fresh thoughts care for, can you?” (line 3 and line 4), once again Hopkins uses questioning his poem, asking the young girl how she could care about such unimportant things as leaves.
With line three of his poem, Hopkins also implies that Margaret is showing characteristics of man by caring about the leaves. He continues that idea in: “Ah! as the heart grows older/”(line 5). Hopkins is trying to tell Margaret that as she grows older into womanhood, her heart will as well. “It will come to such sights colder.” (line 6), this idea is even further continued in line six, where Hopkins tells Margaret that leaves falling from a tree is only the beginning of her sadness, because as...

...Spring is the season between winter and summer. Fall is the season between summer and
winter. Both seasons are beautiful; they are often both wet and muggy. Although there is
different beauty in the seasons of fall and spring, there are also some differences there
such as, weather and activities. I like both seasons, but I prefer the spring season, because
it’s right in the middle of winter and summer, not to cold or not to hot.
In spring, the air begins to warm; temperatures slowly rise as the days get darken later.
Spring is showery and flowery. Leaves on trees start developing and being to turn green
again, flowers and grass start growing and blowing, due to the temperatures getting
warmer.Color flowers with nice smell announces the spring to everybody; and those are
the beginning days of when you start seeing people out more and longer, and we also
start to smell the first cut of grass on a warm spring day. Now fall, is like a whole
different creation; temperatures quickly begin to fall as the days get darker much faster.
Leaves on trees being to change with much darker colors, and are soon floating on to the
ground. The grass no longer shines with green might because, the temperatures getting
cooler. No longer will you see the same action of people, or smell that warm air of fresh
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...The poem "Spring and Fall" by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a poem focusing on the brevity of life, and the grief that is felt in the hearts of all mankind throughout our lives. It is also about the sadness felt by humans as we see ourselves aging, and ultimately about the fact that sin and separation from God bring sorrow and sadness that can never be fully explained by man.
The poet is seemingly speaking to a young child, Margaret, who in her naivety and youth is only beginning to learn about aging and death. The poem opens with a question to young Margaret, "Margaret are you grieving, over Goldengrove unleaving?" "Goldengrove" seems to be represented here as a beautiful place in which the young girl spends her days. This place is "unleaving" or perhaps losing its leaves before winter sets in, and the young child is saddened by this, as children usually are when things are no longer the way they once were. The poet asks her, "leaves, like the things of man, you with your fresh thoughts care for, can you?" Could a girl this young possibly care for these things? Margaret seems to experience an emotional crisis when confronted with the fact of death and decay that the falling leaves represent here. She is saddened by this very real representation of death all around her.
This could very well represent the entire tone of the poem, a saddened and bleak outlook on life, and ultimately, death. Hopkins uses interesting language to enhance the mood of the...

...In Gerard Manley Hopkins' "Spring and Fall," the speaker of the poem describes the changing phases of an individual's understanding about loss and death from a childhood to maturity. Throughout the poem, the child's innocence is gradually lost over time as her weeping for the dying leaves turns into weeping for her own mortality. As if putting on a play for his readers, the poet incorporates visual images as well as aural effects into his poem. In "Spring and Fall", Hopkins uses rhythm, word choice, and alliteration to fully integrate the readers, as if the readers were right next to Margaret as she undergoes these changes.
"Spring and Fall" is a short poem in one stanza; however, Hopkins' choice of rhythm divides the poem into two distinct sections. The first section illustrates the childlike mind, while the second section portrays the grown-up perspective. In the first eight lines, the speaker addresses to Margaret, a young girl weeping over falling leaves. These eight lines contain a lyrical rhythm in couplet form. The beats are straightforward and do not cause accents to fall in unusual places. For example, "By and by, nor spare a sigh / Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;" (7-8) have a very even, four beats per line measure. In fact, when these lines are read out loud, their rhyming pattern is similar to a nursery rhyme. Since nursery rhymes usually have a sing-song...